How do Jehovah's Witnesses deal with pedophilia cases?

Child sexual abuse covered up by the Watchtower

Plentiful television reports, documentaries and lawsuits worldwide state pedophilia amongst the Jehovah’s Witnesses. The organization
deliberately hides cases of sexual abuse towards children in the goal to protect their public image. It doesn't report pedophilia
cases to the police and pedophiles are not punished internally because of the "two witness" rule. If there is only the child victim
testifying against the accused, it is not enough. The accused will be acquitted. According to William «Bill» H. Bowen from http://www.silentlambs.org, in
2002 the Watchtower had a database listing 23,720 pedophiles. Today it could go up to 40, 000.

Black Sun Journal has posted
a fascinating article about allegations of cover up of sexual abuse with the Jehovah's Witness Watchtower Society.

It is not
unusual (perhaps even commonplace) for religious organizations to deny or cover up allegations of sexual abuse;

In most cases
where I have represented victims of clergy sexual abuse, the evidence has indicated that persons' in authority within the Church either
had knowlege of the abuse, or actively covered it up.

What struck me was the lengths to which the Watchtower Society will go
to deny or cover up allegations of sexual abuse within the Church. The article states:

Bowen's group has criticized the Jehovah's
Witnesses' policy that if an accused abuser denies the charge, two credible witnesses are required to establish guilt — due to literal
application of such Bible verses as Deuteronomy 19:15 ("only on the evidence of two witnesses, or of three witnesses, shall a charge
be sustained").

If two witnesses are lacking, the accused is deemed innocent, charges remain confidential and — silentlambs says
— parents who warn others are subject to disfellowshipping for slander.

Disfellowshipping is an extreme penalty that means a
total cutoff of relationships by family members, friends and business associates who are Witnesses.

Sexual abuse is a crime of
secrecy. Since most sexual abusers do not commit their criminal acts in the presence of witnesses the "two witnesses" requirement
is one that would be next to impossible to meet.

To go even further by threatening victims who want to warn others of sexual
abusers with being cut off from their family, friends and associates (the persons victims would turn to for help and support after
being victimized) is perhaps an even greater betrayal than the sexual abuse itself.

In most jurisdictions in North America it
is a crime for person's in authority to fail to report allegations of sexual abuse to the appropriate agency (Children's Services
etc.) so that the allegations can be investigated in an independent and unbiased manner.

Perhaps it is time that Religious groups
be subjected to the same threat of criminal prosecution as private citizens.

-Canada : "Attn: SEXUAL ABUSE VICTIMS IN CANADA!! We are mobilizing some potential law suits. Please either contact me (Tricia Franginha), or contact a lawyer by the name of John McKiggan. He encourages you to contact him ASAP if you are interested in pursuing either a personal claim against the Watchtower OR are interested in being part of a class action with one of his associates". Apr. 10, 2017.

-USA: The Watchtower has recently released their WT May, 2019 study edition which features several articles on child abuse, with some minor policies changes. But still doesn't clearly demand elders to automatically report child sexual abuse to authorities. Feb. 6, 2019.

-Canada: The lawsuit against the Watchtower for the child sexual abuse issue has been accepted in Quebec. It can now proceed further. It is a first victory. The lawyers have 30 days to appeal. More details to come. Feb. 27, 2019.